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“Play the game a little:” How women can break into municipal politics

In this episode, we talk about what it will take for more women to run in Alberta municipal elections this fall. Women hold about 26 per cent of elected municipal positions in the province right now — the situation is even more bleak in Edmonton and Calgary, which have one and two female councillors respectively. We talk about “the ask” — the fact that women need to be asked to multiple times before they might put their name on a ballot. We talk about the challenges women face to find the right people to run their campaigns. And we talk about money. At the end of the day, the average amount put into a winning city council campaign in Edmonton is $80,000. How do women access that kind of money? We talk to some super smart women about the logistics, politics, and dynamics of women running for municipal politics and we visited “campaign school” at Edmonton City Hall.